Many people, for reasons not clearly understood, grind their teeth at night while sleeping. The usual complaints related by this group of people are soreness in joints, facial muscles, and neck muscles, headaches, clicking of the jaw, earaches, etc. Most of these people seek help from their dentist or physician who cite headache disorders, cranial neuralgia and facial pain as the most common symptoms. This grinding of the teeth is called bruxing. Commonly, the grinding of the teeth takes place during the night and the condition is referred to as nocturnal bruxism. Such clenching and grinding of the teeth can also lead to the onset of temporomandibular joint syndrome or temporomandibular disfunction referred to as TMJ syndrome or TMD.
In spite of the fact that there has been an explosion of interest and research regarding bruxism and TMJ disorders in the past ten years, the most common treatment continues to be the "night splint" usually prescribed by dentists. A night splint is a plastic dental appliance made from a model of the patient's teeth and is designed to fit firmly on either the upper or lower teeth. The night splint is usually fitted to the upper teeth and is somewhat similar to a boxer's mouthpiece.
In general, most attempts to relieve people of the TMJ syndrome or its precursor "nocturnal bruxism" have failed. People fitted with a night splint usually grind through the appliance over time and are required to have another made. Such an appliance may prevent further deterioration of the teeth and relieve pressure on the joints but does little or nothing to prevent the grinding process.
Some inventions have attempted to incorporate the use of electronic stimuli in conjunction with various dental appliances. In both Tepper, U.S. Pat. No. 3,259,129, and Tepper, U.S. Pat. No. 3,277,892, a dental appliance for correcting tongue thrust problems is disclosed. Each of these patents describes a dental retainer including a source of electricity connected to a pair of electrodes embedded in the retainer. When the wearer's tongue is improperly thrust forward into contact with the electrodes, an electrical stimulus is imparted to the wearer's tongue. The Tepper devices, however, do nothing to prevent the wearer from grinding his teeth.
Other related dental appliances are disclosed in Dellinger, U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,373, issued Aug. 2, 1983, Smiley et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,895, issued Nov. 27, 1984, and Lauks et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,424, issued Dec. 16, 1986. None of these devices uses electronic stimuli to prevent bruxism.
The present invention addresses the foregoing drawbacks and disadvantages of known dental appliances.